


Barba's Lullabies

by OhBelieveYouMe



Series: Thanks, Tumblr [4]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Fatherhood, Fluffy, Gen, Tumblr Prompt, cute stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 20:46:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8342143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhBelieveYouMe/pseuds/OhBelieveYouMe
Summary: sassy-ada-barba:rafael rocking to sleep his newborn daughter while prepares for a case.SOMEONE PLEASE DRAW THIS or WRITE THIS FOR ME   I seriously had to how could I not...





	

It was late. Or, it was early. Funny how the time on the clock seems to fall to the wayside when a newborn is involved. For Rafael Barba, it was all beginning to fade together. His wife had been up most of the evening with sweet Lilly, it only felt right for him to take over once the witching hour came by. 

“Hush little Lilly, don’t say a word-” He was mumbling a lullaby, or what he could manage through highlighting certain parts of a disposition he had sprawled out on the little table beside the rocking chair.  Usually, it was littered with milk bottles or binkies- now it had everything he needed to compile a damn good court room offense. “Daddy’s gonna lock up a murderer…”

Rafael chuckled, it rhymed after all, but that damned fatherly instinct bit at the back of his brain. Likely, that was not what his wife had in mind when she suggested he try singing to her. Lilly remained alert, slightly fussy, and stared up at him with those baby doll eyes he couldn’t help but look back into. 

“And if that mocking bird don’t sing;” that was the next line right? He had her carefully cradled in his left arm, thank God newborns were so small or he probably wouldn’t have been able to pull this off. He squint while bouncing her, and leaned over to write a note by a question he knew he’d have to watch out for, that definitely could be used by the defense. “Daddy’s gonna strangle Carisi…”

Okay, this may be going too far. He flinched, and carefully glanced down at the sweet wide-eyed darling in his arms. Despite his previous scowl, he softened again, and gently tapped at her pink pajamas with the end of his pen. “And if that diamond ring turns brass-” he hadn’t realized how materialistic this nursery rhyme was. In fact, he hadn’t even considered the words before. What were the next words anyway? He couldn’t think over the dialogue he was working on in his head, the final statement to the jury before dismissal.

“Daddy’s gonna kick the Defense’s a-” Nope, okay, time for a new song; his wife was going to kill him. Lilly squirmed and squealed when he stopped rocking in the chair, obviously upset. Rafael dropped his pen on the stack of papers, now surprisingly distracted by little fists clenching into the air. He needed to finish these preparations, or else he’d likely be stuck going into the office at an ungodly hour the next morning to do so.

It was when those little fingers curled into the opening of his night shirt that he finally was convinced to leave the pen down. Sure, he needed to get work done, but his wife’s words rang louder in his head than the ink on the paper; _They’re only this small for so long, Rafi. Hold her while you can, she loves her Papi._

Delicately, dramatically so, Rafael readjusted his hold on his sweet little Lilly Barba, so she’d be balanced and laid out in both of his arms instead of one. Instinctively, his beautiful baby turned towards him, and gazed up into his green eyes with her own- expectant, hopeful, innocent. Everything he was not anymore, after all the damned evidence he had been pouring through.

“Oh, Holy night. The stars are brightly shining;” He sang the first song that came to mind, his favorite Christmas carol, but this time his attention was solely on the little pink lips that pouted up at him. “It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth.” His wife had told him newborns couldn’t smile, but he’d be damned if the corners of her mouth hadn’t turned up- he gently ran his fingertip along her plumped baby cheeks.

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining,” Her eyes, oh those little sweet eyes, were finally starting to glaze behind fluttering eyelids. If he had known this was all it would take to convince her to sleep, he’d have taken the break from his paperwork long ago. They rocked, his heart and soul dedicated to helping little Lilly find dreamland. Of course he was tired, but for some reason, he was oh so worried about how drowsy she must be.

“'Til she appeared-” He changed the words unknowingly, he hadn’t even realized he said ‘she’. Rafael was too entranced by how her chest rose and fell when sleep finally found her. It was sudden, too sudden; he knew he should lay her down in her crib now. Maybe he could just let her lay and he could go back to bed, or finish the notes he had been so desperately working on moments before. But now, with her eyelids shut and her small breathing somehow controlling all the air in the room, he couldn’t bring himself to put her down. That all could wait, it would have to. He wanted to hold his Lilly darling. 

“And the soul…” he choked up momentarily in an uncharacteristic second of incontainable emotions, and cautiously kissed her forehead; “And the soul felt its worth.”


End file.
